Word.ws English Dictionary

turn a deaf ear

turn a deaf ear verb: to refuse to listen to.

Verb

turn a deaf ear (third-person singular simple present turns a deaf ear, present participle turning a deaf ear, simple past and past participle turned a deaf ear)

  1. (figuratively) To refuse to listen to.
    • They turned a deaf ear to her entreaties.
    • This really confirms that Sacramentans turn a deaf ear to efforts to legislate bigotry and homophobia. Sacramento ought to take a lot of pride in looking at their community as one that tolerates diversity.1986 December 14, Jeffrey Ruda, quoting Ron Gray, “Sacramento Holds On To Lesbian/Gay Rights”, in Gay Community News, volume 14, number 22, page 2

turn a deaf ear meaning in Tamil, Kannada and Arabic

turn a deaf ear in Tamil

செவி சாய்க்காமலிரு, பொருட்படுத்தாமாலிரு

turn a deaf ear in Kannada

ಕಿವಿಗೊಡದಿರು, ಕೆಳಗಿವಿಗೊಡು, ಕಿವುಡುಗೇಳ್, ಕಿವುಡುಗೇಳು, ಕಿವುಡುಕೇಳ್, ಕಿವುಡುಕೇಳು

turn a deaf ear in Arabic

to refuse to listen or hear something
صَمَّ الأُذُنَ عَنْ ṣamma l-ʔuḏuna ʕan

Forms of turn a deaf ear

third-person singular presentturns a deaf ear
present participleturning a deaf ear
past participleturned a deaf ear
pastturned a deaf ear

Questions about turn a deaf ear

What does turn a deaf ear mean?
Turn a deaf ear means to refuse to listen to.
What is turn a deaf ear in Tamil?
Turn a deaf ear in Tamil is செவி சாய்க்காமலிரு, பொருட்படுத்தாமாலிரு. See Turn a deaf ear meaning in Tamil.
What part of speech is turn a deaf ear?
Turn a deaf ear is a verb.
What is the past tense of turn a deaf ear?
The past tense of turn a deaf ear is turned a deaf ear.

Words near turn a deaf ear in the dictionary

  1. turmuts
  2. turn
  3. turn 19 in Poland
  4. turn a blind eye
  5. turn a corner
  6. turn a deaf ear
  7. turn a hair
  8. turn a new leaf
  9. turn a number of shades of red
  10. turn a page
  11. turn a phrase

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: turn a deaf ear (page history and authors); turn a deaf ear (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); turn a deaf ear (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-au-turn a deaf ear.ogg.

Cite this entry: “turn a deaf ear.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/turn_a_deaf_ear. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.